But Brest was set on the very un-A-list Grodin, who had blown him away in his audition. They even considered switching the gender of the accountant character and casting Cher. Nor could it agree with Brest on who should play De Niro’s foil as The Duke. The studio also wasn’t convinced that De Niro was a big enough box-office draw-especially in a comedy. But Gallo’s script was full of so many spendy action set pieces, that Paramount balked at their $35 million budget. Brest, who had just made a mint for Paramount with 1984’s Beverly Hills Cop, was slated to make his follow-up for the studio. The path from script to screen on Midnight Run wasn’t a smooth one. But screenwriter George Gallo and director Martin Brest pull it off beautifully. Is it a lot of balls to keep in the air? Absolutely. Also on their tail are the FBI (led by “Agent Foster Grant”, Yaphet Kotto) and a couple of dim, bent-nose hitmen dispatched by the Windy City’s cream soda-loving Mob boss Jimmy Serrano (Dennis Farina). The catch is: the trip is getting so tight deadline-wise that Walsh’s twitchy employer (a low-rent bondsman played by the weaselly Joe Pantoliano) sics a rival skip-tracer on them (John Ashton playing a gullible goon to the hilt). Since Mardukas is afraid of flying, or at least claims to be (“These things go down! These things go down!”), the short-fused Walsh has to escort the annoying, motormouthed fugitive across the country via stolen cars, lumbering freight trains, and even white-water rapids. ![]() All he cares about is getting out of his bum racket. Meanwhile, Grodin’s Jonathan “The Duke” Mardukas is a deadpan loose-cannon who claims that by taking the wiseguys’ money and going on the run he was trying to do the honest thing. De Niro’s Jack Walsh is a former Chicago cop who looks at this no-brainer assignment as his last big score-he’s getting $100,000 for the job-so he can open a coffee shop and maybe even work his way back into the life of his teenage daughter. For those who may not be familiar with this under-appreciated gem, Robert De Niro plays a hard-bitten bounty hunter hired to bring a neurotic Mob accountant who’s embezzled $15 million from the Chicago Mafia (Charles Grodin) from New York to L.A. Released on this day in 1988, Midnight Run takes the creaky, knee-jerk formula of pairing two mismatched stars with completely different acting styles and pushes it somewhere bizarre, unexpected, hilarious, and ultimately poignant. But if you missed it (or just decided to sit it out) and want to belatedly dive in and experience that glory, then allow me to make a possibly controversial suggestion: The place to begin is at the top with what I’m convinced is the Greatest Buddy Action Comedy in an era of Great Buddy Action Comedies, Midnight Run. If you weren’t old enough to experience this cycle first hand, I’ll just say this: It was a glorious period. This era would come to be known as The Age of the Buddy Action Comedy. And it kept rolling right along into the ‘90s with Bad Boys, Men in Black, and Rush Hour. kickstarted a rich, gold-rush era in the genre with subsequent ‘80s flicks such as Tango & Cash, Running Scared, and the Lethal Weapon franchise. ![]() There’d already been movies like Some Like it Hot and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Freebie and the Bean. ![]() Well, maybe not new exactly, but long dormant. But back in the early ‘80s, it was fairly new. It probably even comes as a default setting in the latest software update of Final Draft. Today, that sort of odd-couple pairing feels so commonplace that it’s become a hack screenwriting cliché. Why Were Blade Runner and The Thing '80s Bombs?.Walsh captures Mardukas in New York, but Moscone isn't the only one with a vested interest in tracking down the thief: Serrano has sent his henchmen after Mardukas, and the FBI are on the trail as well. Mardukas embezzled $15 million from Mob boss Jimmy Serrano (Dennis Farina) and then skipped bail. ![]() Bounty hunter Jack Walsh (De Niro) is hired by bail bondsman Eddie Moscone (Joe Pantoliano) to locate crooked accountant Jonathan 'The Duke' Mardukas (Grodin) and return him to Los Angeles. Robert De Niro and Charles Grodin star in this classic action-comedy from director Martin Brest (Beverley Hills Cop), scripted by George Gallo (Wise Guys).
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |